Fun Link

Ever wondered how different words are pronounced in different parts of the USA? Here's a fun site that maps dialect.

Starting a Business

My friend Chris and I decided to start a business together. We've been talking for at least a year about it, but this last month we decided it was time to take the plunge and just do it. We're committing a certain amount of our spare time each week to work on it.

So what are we doing? We're going to develop software together, a particular type of software called a web application. Before you yawn, let me just tell you that web applications are very cool. If you've ever used Gmail, you've used a web app. Gmail, for example, gives you most of the functionality of an email program (like Outlook) - but it lives in your web browser instead of on your computer. That's what a web application is. And we're going to make them.

Apology

My apologies to my loyal readers who have anxiously been waiting for a new post for the last month. I'm going to try to get back in the groove and update more frequently.

I'm still figuring out what to write about in this blog; if you have any suggestions, feel free to share them with me. Which of my posts have you enjoyed the most? Do you have any questions that you want me to answer about my life, technology, the Bills, Christianity, etc? Let me know if you think of anything.

I'll be posting soon about my new business venture...

The Way to Wealth

I recently read Benjamin Franklin's The Way to Wealth, a short-and-sweet collection of his Poor Richard proverbs.

Franklin advises how to become wealthy:

Industry
"Laziness travels so slowly that Poverty soon overtakes him."
"Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
"Since thou art not sure of a Minute, throw not away an Hour."

Frugality
"If you would be wealthy, think of Saving as well as Getting."
"Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship."
"Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy Necessaries."
"'Tis easier to suppress the first Desire, than to satisfy all that follow it."

In conclusion:
"Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that."
"We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct."
"If you will not hear Reason, she'll surely rap your knuckles."

"This Doctrine, my Friends, is Reason and Wisdom; but after all, do not depend too much upon your own Industry, and Frugality, and Prudence, though excellent Things, for they may all be blasted without the Blessing of Heaven; and therefore ask that Blessing humbly, and be not uncharitable to those that at present seem to want it, but comfort and help them. Remember Job suffered, and was afterwards prosperous."